Agaju Madugba, Katsina
The Federal Government has flagged-off its Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS) in Katsina State with 3,060 beneficiaries receiving cash grants for various micro enterprises.
The first phase of the pilot programme is being executed in six states of Katsina, Gombe, Ebonyi, Oyo, Akwa-Ibom and Benue, through the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN).
Speaking at the programme at Daura on Friday evening, SMEDAN Director-General, Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda, said the scheme was designed to promote activities of micro enterprises across the country in the areas of capacity building and delivery of post-intervention support services, such as access to finance, markets and workspace, among other aids.
According to him, “in order to make sure that the objectives of the programme are achieved and its impact guaranteed, there we have well structured business mentoring and monitoring mechanism.
“The justification for a special entrpreneurship and vocational development intervention for entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid cannot be overemphasized, based on the need to graduate informal enterprises to the formal sector, industrialise the nation, develop the rural economy, stem youth restiveness and unemployment, and create the platform for sustainable economic growth and development in Nigeria.”
A total of 145 local government areas in the country are expected to participate in the scheme with beneficiaries receiving total cash of N2 billion.